C-parity, magnetic monopoles and higher frequency gravitational waves

TL;DR

This paper explores the breaking of grand unified symmetry in $SO(10)$ models, leading to monopoles, C-strings, and domain walls, and predicts a gravitational wave spectrum from their decay potentially observable at high frequencies.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of topological defects from $SO(10)$ symmetry breaking and estimates their gravitational wave signatures, highlighting potential observability.

Findings

Primordial monopoles can have observable densities due to inflation.

Decay of string-wall networks emits gravitational waves with a high-frequency peak.

The gravitational wave spectrum depends on the domain wall tension $\sigma$.

Abstract

We consider the spontaneous breaking of $SO(10)$ grand unified symmetry to the left-right symmetric model $SU(3)_c \times SU(3)_L \times SU(2)_R \times U(1)_{B-L}$ with C-parity also unbroken [$C$ converts $Q\to -Q$, where $Q$ is the electric charge operator in $SO(10)$.] This breaking produces the topologically stable GUT monopole as well as a GUT scale C-string. The subsequent breaking at an intermediate scale of C-parity produces domain walls bounded by C-strings, found by Kibble, Lazarides and Shafi. A limited number of inflationary $e$-foldings experienced during these breakings can yield an observable number density of primordial GUT monopoles. The C-strings also experience this inflationary phase, and the subsequent string-wall network decays through the emission of gravitational waves. We estimate the gravitational wave spectrum from these composite structures over a range of values of the domain wall tension $\sigma$. Depending on $\sigma$ the spectrum displays a peak in the higher frequency range between $10^2$ to $10^5$ Hz.